Family reunited with team who saved son's life in flood

BATON ROUGE – A mother and son were reunited Wednesday with the team of emergency officials that helped to save the boy's life in August's historic flooding.

Jessica Michot needed help during the August flood in getting out of her home to get medicine for her medically fragile son, Gabriel. Her home was not flooded, however the roads around it were.

"It was stressful, he broke seven trachs (tracheostomy) during that flood period and for that, that was all our back up trachs. That was all our everything. We didn't have anything else. So we were without meds, without extra trachs and we needed that med," Jessica Michot said.

Without a working cell phone, Michot posted on the Facebook group, Trach Moms of Louisiana, and a member got in touch with the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and a team was put together to get Gabriel help.

"We got the call, the state medical doctor called in a prescription. We drove to Walgreens and got from there we actually put it on a helicopter, sent it over by chopper, then by boat, then somebody actually walked it over to their house and so it was a multiple team effort of people getting involved," Melton Gaspard of GOHSEP said.

Grateful for the life-saving efforts, Gabriel and his mother got the opportunity to meet the team who helped save him.

"I know a lot of criticism comes around the flood, and people say a lot went wrong during the flood and the response and everything, but a lot went right too. And this is just one of the examples of what went right," Jessica Michot said.

The organization, Trach Moms of Louisiana, is advocating for more medical help for disabled children and adults during emergencies.